Ukulady's Man wants to spread love like peanut butter

Sean Vincent Hager takes the ukulele more seriously than most people - but not too seriously.

In his performance persona of the Ukulady's Man, Hager travels the South like a modern troubador, bringing audiences an entertaining one-of-a-kind music experience based on his long-time love affair with the powerful, portable ukulele.

"The mission of the Ukulady's Man is to spread love like peanut butter," says Hager, who performs tonight at the Logon Cafe's Mini RenFest. "I never really considered myself as much a musician as I do an entertainer."

Hager's interest in engaging the audience comes, in part, from his studies. He is an aspiring teacher majoring in English. Although he enjoys playing for adults, his passion is bringing his act to schools across the country.

"I really want to target schools with high volumes of truancy and low performance scores. The first step to getting students to perform well in school is to get them to love learning. Show them the value in that," Hager said.

"There are so many valuable and precious words in the English language. Patience, kindness, compassion. I want to use music to instill those concepts in kids."

Hager, who fancies himself an "edu-tainer," believes his message has the power to be just as relevant to adults.

"The sad thing is that some people my age and people older than me have never even heard the word virtue before. Which is horrible because it is so important to be a good person and stewards of this earth," he said.

"I would like to have a curriculum where there are exercises that allow people to practice these virtues. Knowing the difference between right and wrong is more important than math, more important than calculus."

Two events led Hager to begin this project. After graduating from film school he returned home to Lake Charles, where he began substitute-teaching.

Through this he discovered a passion for teaching and connecting with kids. The other point of inspiration came in the form of an instrument.

"One year for Christmas my mom got me a ukulele. I didn't think much of it at the time but eventually I fell in love with it," admits Hager,

"I started taking it everywhere I went. Honestly the portable element of it is so great it is so much easier than lugging a guitar around".

Hager said the ukulele has the potential to give people who may never have learned an instrument the ability to make music.

"It is a very powerful tool to bring people into music. It is not intimidating to play, you can start having fun within the first few minutes of playing," he said.

"You can start playing chords that would take you weeks or months to learn on guitar, and the best part about it is that it is portable, you can take it anywhere. I always try to promote the ukulele."

Although music, touring and his studies are Hager's main preoccupations, he has not given up on his filmmaking dreams.

"I make movies and I want to pursue that. I am an ambitious fellow," he said. "I have a lot of seeds that I have planted in different gardens and I have my eggs in a lot of different baskets. I have been trying to network with people who are good at executing ideas, which is not my strong suit. I found some people who are really good at that."

In the meantime, Hager said, he has been thinking a lot about "what my verb is."

"I think mine is to inspire. Not to teach, not to entertain, but to inspire people."